Prices hold up as collectors chase glass rarities

17 January 2009Written by Anne Crane

For some years now it has been traditional to hold a major auction of antique glass in the immediate run-up to the festive season.

This was a slot traditionally filled by Sotheby's, but when they
stopped holding dedicated glass sales and their specialist Simon
Cottle moved to Bonhams, the specialist glass sales travelled with
him.

Last summer saw Cottle's first dedicated glass sales: around 420
lots comprising the single-owner
Thomas Collection and a mixed-owner event on June 4. Last
month, glass was once again filling the traditional December slot
as, aided by the success of the June events,
Bonhams Bond Street (20/12% buyer's premium) offered another
double hander on the 17th.

The morning was devoted to the 208- lot James Hall collection of
English glass, followed by 321 lots of British and European mixed
ownership. When one compares their 529-lot December tally with the
43 lots of English and Continental glass in Christie's November 18
ceramics auction, and just a couple of pieces at Sotheby's on
December 2, it is clear that Bonhams are firmly on the map as the
main London location for antique drinking glasses.

James Hall, who died in 2005, had been collecting glass
seriously since 1971, but was particularly active from 2002 after
his retirement. Buying from well regarded dealers like Delomosne
and Jeanette Hayhurst and from the major salerooms, he concentrated
on classic English glassmaking, but built up a collection that took
in most representative and specialist forms, with a focus on the
late 17th and early 18th century period.

For the afternoon, Mr Cottle had combined several smaller
collections: 18th century drinking glasses from Frank Ffoulkes' and
the Hunter collection consigned from the Channel Islands, plus
paperweights from the estate of Philo Woodrow Van Wagoner, with a
swathe of mixed-owner material.

Taken all together, this offered a wealth of classic 18th
century English drinking glasses covering all the standard
conformations plus the specialist sub-sections in which wellheeled
collectors like to specialise. There was also a smaller selection
of the less buoyant Continental material. Rich pickings indeed.

Sales Volume

One can argue that these days a saleroom needs to make something
of a splash in providing the critical mass to attract the buyers.
But as discussed in last week's London Selection where I reported
on the glut of Worcester porcelain offered in the same rooms this
year, there is a downside to such a feast.

Give buyers too much choice and they can become choosy. So while
these sales turned in respectable totals, there was some fallout
from the sheer volume on offer. Take-up by lot was around 73 per
cent for the Hall sale and down to around 57 per cent for the
mixed-owner offering (although aftersales improved that with the
Hall sale up to over 80 per cent by early January).

In any sector of the art market, from Old Masters to tinplate
toys, buying is about assessing the opportunity. If it's a scarce
or one-off occasion, there will be no shortage of takers, but move
down the scale to rare but obtainable, and on to good but widely
available and it's all about pricing levels.

So while the marketing and large attendance gathered for these
sales benefited the scarcer pieces, it was harder going for the
middle-of-the-road material. New buyers from the US - private and
institutional - bidders from South Africa, Australia and even
Continental Europe all swelled the home interest, scrabbling to
secure trophy pieces and boosting the prices for Beilbys,
Jacobites, big-statement balusters and colour twists. But it's a
different story for middle of the road drinking glasses.

This is an area where auctioneers often rely on the trade to buy
for stock, but these days dealers will only do this if it is very
cheap. In the December sales anything pitched aggressively or with
damage found it much harder, especially when faced with a glut in
some oversubscribed fields.

New Buyers

Simon Cottle felt that estimates set six months ago when
post-June results augured more buoyancy did not help. And he also
defended the inclusion of middle-of-the-road material in volume as
necessary to attract a cross section of collectors. "To keep a
market alive, you need to bring in the new buyers," he said.

There are signs the policy was working: some first-time
customers who bought when Bonhams offered cheaper material from the
Thomas collection in their Knowle rooms turned up at Bond Street in
December. And even at the lower end of the scale it is not all doom
and gloom. There were those aftersales. It was also interesting to
note that glasses from the James Hall collection, some of which had
been acquired recently and at bullish prices, still managed to
clear at least a nominal profit for more standard elements as well
as rarities.

One can tell this because his well provenanced catalogue gave
plenty of information about where many of his glasses were sourced,
giving the opportunity to compare last month's prices with what he
had paid at auction.

So alongside the engraved blue colour twist ale glass that cost
him £2800 in Bonhams six years ago and made £5800 last month was a
large airtwist stemmed goblet that fetched £900 last month compared
to £500 in 2004 and a standard mid-18th century trumpet bowled,
hops and barley engraved ale on a double knopped multi-spiral
airtwist stem, that improved on a £680 price at Bonhams in 2002 to
take £750 this time. The overall hammer take of around £720,000 on
top of around £600,000 from June is not to be sneezed at
either.

Some of that may be produced by five-figure sums from collectors
ensuring they can add a Jacobite or baluster goblet to their
collections, but more modestly priced drinking glasses contributed
to much of the volume. We illustrate a selection from both ends of
the scale. Overall, it suggests that English glass is a market with
enough breadth and depth to be better placed than many to weather
2009's potentially choppy trading conditions.

Enamelled Glass

The 1760s enamelled glasses attributed to the Beilby family in
Newcastle always pack a punch. Last month at Bonhams collectors
were particularly well served with eight examples ranging from
those with simple white floral bands to more elaborate
architectural scenes, peacocks, beehives and polychrome armorials.
The only element lacking was the grandest of all the Beilby
incarnations - the privateer or armorial goblets.

Two Beilbys provided the highest prices in the James Hall sale.
A 7.5in (19cm) high opaque twist goblet painted with peacocks
fetched £17,000, towards the upper end of the punchy £12,000-
18,000 guide.

Following at £14,000 was this 7.25in (18.5cm) high opaque twist
ale elegantly painted with a bee skep to one side and a floral
spray to the other. A rare firing glass painted with the arms of
the Lodge of Journeymen and Masons of Edinburgh sold for £9500 (it
fetched £11,000 at Bonhams Edinburgh rooms in 2004). The
mixed-owner sale included this interesting 6in (15cm) high opaque
twist enamelled with a cat séjant and the motto Sans Peur - one of
a series of glasses that appear to be by a different Newcastle
workshop. Its insignia may relate to the Earl of Sutherland's
arms.

It sold for £11,000.

English Balusters

Early balusters were another plentiful glass form in these
sales. With so many in the Hall collection buyers were selective
but prepared to pay handsomely for the best examples. This
enthusiasm comes partly from new North American buyers for these
muscular glasses.

Some of these are collectors of early bottles who are making a
connection between the two forms. Others are institutions who want
an example of these early drinking vessels to complement other
colonial era artefacts in their holdings.

Size matters but equally important in the world of baluster
collecting are proportion and features such as stem shape.

The most surprising result came with a 11.5in (29cm) heavy
baluster goblet on a teared stem in the Hall collection that
matched its mammoth size with a mammoth price - £10,000 - courtesy
of American bidding.

The day's other baluster goblet of the same date and size but
with an inverted baluster stem made £7000 in the mixed owner
auction.

Smaller at 6in (14cm) but elegantly proportioned, with its
teared bowl and cylinder stem divided by a flattened knop and
merese, was this c.1715 wine glass that realised £6000.

Jacobite Glass

Jacobite glasses have bounced back from any doubts about
authenticity that affected their fortunes a few years ago and are
now on a roll.

New collectors, including some Americans, have entered the
market which has helped boost interest. There have been signs of
this revival in many recent auctions notably the strong prices paid
at Bonhams Edinburgh rooms for three fairly standard Jacobite wine
glasses that happened to come from the collection of Geoffrey
Seddon, author of the influential reference book The Jacobites
and Their Glasses.

More recently Tamlyns sold a set of 13 facet stem glasses from
the Welsh Jacobite Society for a total of £21,600 (see ATG No 1870,
September 20/27).

Above: Jacobite goblet - £13,000.

The Jacobite glasses in Bonhams' December sales were mostly
simple 18th century wines with engraved rose and bud motifs but one
example in the mixed owner sale stood out by virtue of its size,
shape and provenance. This 10in (26cm) high baluster glass is known
as The Torpichen Goblet after an early 20th century owner Lord
Torpichen.

Last offered for sale at Sotheby's in 1992 where it fetched
£3200, here it generated keen competition from the UK and overseas
bidders selling for £13,000 to a British collector.

Colour Twists

There are collectors at a certain level who love to add an
example of a colour twist wine glass to their holdings making them
a strong specialist area. Bonhams offered punters around 20
examples of these 1760-70s glasses, the bulk in the James Hall
sale.

Above: colour twist engraved ale - £5800.

Although lacking an example of the most desirable canary yellow
threaded stem, there was a good spread of other colours. The most
expensive was this James Hall blue twist, a variant on the usual
form being a 7.5in (19cm) high ale engraved to the funnel bowl with
hops and barley. It fetched £5800, double what it made six years
ago in the same rooms.

Cameo Glass

The potential stars of the later 19th century decorative glass
that made up a small but notable section of Bonhams' sales were all
pieces of cameo glass. As expected, the best seller was the 12in
(30cm) high, two-handled vase carved with The Milkmaid by the
Victorian master of the genre, George Woodall.

It sold at the lower end of a punchy £30,000-£50,000
estimate.

More unexpected was the keen competition for this 11in (27.5cm)
Islamic taste Thomas Webb vase.

Above: Orientalist cameo vase - £23,000.

Unsigned, but attributed to the Woodall workshop, Bonhams had
guided it at £8000-12,000, based on the £12,000 paid at Sotheby's
four years ago for a similar version. But stiff competition,
including interest from a UK institution, saw it taken to £23,000,
selling to an American buyer.

Paperweights

As an American-led market, paperweights have been volatile
performers recently, but perhaps the relative strength of the
dollar now has added impetus to buyers from across the Pond.

While the overall take-up for 60-odd lots on offer here was
around 60 per cent, there were some very strong individual prices.
One was the £11,000 paid for a large, 4.5in (11.5cm) diameter Mount
Washington weight featuring a large shaded pink and white rose. It
was notable, said Simon Cottle, because American weights usually
perform strongest on home territory.

Above: Baccarat Swans-in-a-Pond weight - £20,000.

Topping the bill, though, was this c.1850 Baccarat faceted
Swans-in-a-Pond weight. This design only rarely surfaces at
auction. Sotheby's sold a version with two swans but with some
condition issues in their New York Historical Society auction in
1995 for $6000. It's a mark of the scarcity and good condition of
this example that it fetched £20,000.

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